We present everything you need to know about facing your foes, and all of life's battles, based on the book The 33 Strategies of War by best-selling author Robert Greene.
Greene has studied countless battles throughout history and pulled together the need-to-know strategies that can also be used for "winning the subtle social game of everyday life."
1. Declare war on your enemies
The Polarity Strategy
Life is endless battle and conflict, and you cannot fight effectively unless you can identify your enemies. Learn to smoke out your enemies, to spot them by the signs and patterns that reveal hostility. Then, once you have them in your sights, inwardly declare war. Your enemies can fill you with purpose and direction.
Source: Robert Greene's The 33 Strategies of War.
2. Do not fight the past
The Guerrilla-War-Of-The-Mind Strategy
What most often weighs you down and brings you misery is the past. You must consciously force yourself to react to the present moment. Be ruthless on yourself; do not repeat the same tired methods. Wage guerrilla war on your mind, allowing no static lines of defense — make everything fluid and mobile.
3. Amidst the turmoil of events, do not lose your presence of mind
What most often weighs you down and brings you misery is the past. You must consciously force yourself to react to the present moment. Be ruthless on yourself; do not repeat the same tired methods. Wage guerrilla war on your mind, allowing no static lines of defense — make everything fluid and mobile.
3. Amidst the turmoil of events, do not lose your presence of mind
The Counterbalance Strategy
In the heat of battle, the mind tends to lose its balance. It is vital to keep you presence of mind, maintaining your mental powers, whatever the circumstances. Make the mind tougher by exposing it to adversity. Learn to detach yourself from the chaos of the battlefield.
In the heat of battle, the mind tends to lose its balance. It is vital to keep you presence of mind, maintaining your mental powers, whatever the circumstances. Make the mind tougher by exposing it to adversity. Learn to detach yourself from the chaos of the battlefield.
4. Create a sense of urgency and desperation
The Death-Ground Strategy
You are your own worst enemy. You waste previous time dreaming of the future instead of engaging in the present. Cut your ties to the past — enter unknown territory. Place yourself on "death ground", where your back is against the wall and you have to fight like hell to get out alive.
II. ORGANIZATIONAL (TEAM) WARFARE
You are your own worst enemy. You waste previous time dreaming of the future instead of engaging in the present. Cut your ties to the past — enter unknown territory. Place yourself on "death ground", where your back is against the wall and you have to fight like hell to get out alive.
II. ORGANIZATIONAL (TEAM) WARFARE
Ideas and tactics mean nothing without an organized, responsive, creative, and motivated army.
5. Avoid the snares of groupthink
The Command-And-Control Strategy
The problem in leading any group is that people inevitably have their own agendas. You have to create a chain of command in which they do not feel constrained by your influence yet follow your lead. Create a sense of participation, but do not fall into groupthink — the irrationality of collective decision making.
The problem in leading any group is that people inevitably have their own agendas. You have to create a chain of command in which they do not feel constrained by your influence yet follow your lead. Create a sense of participation, but do not fall into groupthink — the irrationality of collective decision making.
6. Segment your forces
The Controlled-Chaos Strategy
The critical elements in war are speed and adaptability — the ability to move and make decisions faster than the enemy. Break your forces into independent groups that can operate on their own. Make your forces elusive and unstoppable by infusing them with the spirit of the campaign, giving them a mission to accomplish, and then letting them run.
7. Transform your war into a crusade
The critical elements in war are speed and adaptability — the ability to move and make decisions faster than the enemy. Break your forces into independent groups that can operate on their own. Make your forces elusive and unstoppable by infusing them with the spirit of the campaign, giving them a mission to accomplish, and then letting them run.
7. Transform your war into a crusade
Morale Strategy
The secret to motivating people and maintaining their morale is to get them to think less about themselves and more about the group. Involve them in a cause, a crusade against a hated enemy. Make them see their survival as tied to the success of the army as a whole.
The secret to motivating people and maintaining their morale is to get them to think less about themselves and more about the group. Involve them in a cause, a crusade against a hated enemy. Make them see their survival as tied to the success of the army as a whole.
